NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 25: Executive producer Karen Pritzker and film subject Allison Schwartz attend HBO's New York Premiere of "The Big Picture: Rethinking Dyslexia" on October 25, 2012 in New York City. (Photo by Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images for HBO)

Photo: Stephen Lovekin, Getty Images For HBO

NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 25: Executive producer Karen Pritzker and...

Peter Buck, co-founder of the Milford, Conn. based subway chain of restaurants.

Photo: Contributed Photo

Peter Buck, co-founder of the Milford, Conn. based subway chain of...

Richard Chilton, chairman of Chilton Investment Co.

Photo: File Photo, ST

Richard Chilton, chairman of Chilton Investment Co.

Mario J. Gabelli, chairman and CEO of Gamco Investors

Photo: Contributed Photo, Greenwich Time

Mario J. Gabelli, chairman and CEO of Gamco Investors

C. Dean Metropoulos, chairman of Pabst Brewing

Photo: Contributed Photo, ST

C. Dean Metropoulos, chairman of Pabst Brewing

William E. Macaulay, chairman and chief executive officer of First Reserve Corp.

Photo: CHIP EAST, BLOOMBERG NEWS

William E. Macaulay, chairman and chief executive officer of First...

SUN VALLEY, ID - JULY 09: Andreas Halvorsen, founding partner of Viking Global Investors LP, attends the Allen & Company Media and Technology Conference on July 9, 2011 in Sun Valley, Idaho. The conference has been hosted annually by the investment firm Allen & Company each July since 1983. The conference is typically attended by many of the world's most powerful media executives. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Forbes magazine has published its 2013 World's Billionaires List, and the same eight Greenwich residents happen to be on the roster that was reported in the publication's September 2012 edition featuring the Forbes 400, its ranking of the wealthiest Americans.

Ray Dalio, founder and co-chief investment officer of Bridgewater Associates, a Westport hedge fund with about $140 billion in assets, tops Greenwich and Connecticut billionaires with $12.5 billion in net worth. His firm, which he founded in his New York City home in 1975, had earnings of $800 million in 2012, according to a Forbes listing of the 40 highest earning hedge fund managers and traders.

Financial services and hedge fund owners monopolize the professions of Greenwich residents in the rankings. Steve Cohen, the second local person on the list with a net worth of $9.3 billion, owns the $14 billion Stamford-based hedge fund SAC Capital Advisors,

Cohen is 117th on the global list, which is topped by Mexico's Carlos Slim Helu, operator of Grupo Financiero Inbursa and the Grupo Carso industrial and retail conglomerate. Slim and his family have a net worth of $73 billion.

Cohen's firm recorded earnings of $1.3 billion in 2012, according to Forbes.

While Slim remains the world's richest man for the fourth year in a row, Warren Buffett, operator of Berkshire Hathaway, dropped out of the top three for the first time since 2000.

Bill Gates of Microsoft held on to second place with a net worth of $67 billion.

And Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg saw his ranking drop 31 spots as his net worth fell by $4.2 billion from $17.5 billion. His ranking fell to No. 66 from No. 35 in 2012.

Brazil's Eike Batista had the biggest drop in his net worth, as it declined $19.4 billion from the previous year.

There were 210 new faces on the list, with Forbes saying many were helped by rebounding equity markets and strong consumer brands. Sixty people dropped off the list entirely, including Zynga's Mark Pincus and former Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon.

"We've done the list since 1987. This year is the 27th annual," said Forbes spokeswoman Debbie Weathers, adding that Fairfield County has figured prominently. "It's the hedge fund capital of the world."

Third among Greenwich residents on the net worth list is Thomas Peterffy, a native of Hungary, who has turned his Interactive Brokers into a firm that gives him a net worth of $5 billion.

Paul Tudor Jones II, founder of Tudor Investment, a $12 billion hedge fund in Greenwich, registered net worth of $3.6 billion. His firm had $275 million in earnings last year.

Other Greenwich residents on the list include Mario Gabelli, operator of Gamco Investors, a Rye, N.Y.-based money management firm with $36.4 billion in client assets, who is worth $1.2 billion.

Investor C. Dean Metropoulos, owner of Past Blue Ribbon Brewing, also has a net worth of $1.2 billion. That put Metropoulos, who has teamed with private equity firm Apollo to compete for bankrupt Hostess' snack cakes division, 377th in the U.S.

And William Macaulay, founder of First Reserve, a private equity fund focused on energy investments, also made the global list with net worth of $1.1 billion.

Having a wealthy group of residents on a scale of the eight billionaires benefits Greenwich in terms of philanthropy, but it lends to a not-so-true reputation that every town resident is well-healed with hefty bank accounts, said Selectman Drew Marzullo, sole Democrat of the three selectmen.

"There's a stereotype that Greenwich is a town of unlimited wealth, but there are thousands in town that earn under $40,000 a year," Marzullo said. "Success and wealth are a wonderful thing, but it's more important to have a diverse populace."

But Greenwich does not have a monopoly on billionaires in Connecticut.

Andreas Halvorsen, another Darien-based hedge fund operator, was listed as having net worth of $1.3 billion, ranking him 1107 on the global Forbes list. A Norwegian national, he operates Viking Global Investors, an $18 billion hedge fund. He was ranked fifth in Norway in terms of net worth.

Karen Pritzker of Branford is the only non-Fairfield County resident to make the global list. She is among 11 billionaires in her family, which has acquired its wealth through hotels and investments.

The idea of having so many billionaires congregated in the county comes as no surprise to Ridgefield resident Nick Perna, chief economist for Webster Bank in Waterbury.

"We're getting to the point where these people can do whatever they do wherever they want, but you have to have an organization. Connecticut has become an attractive place for them (financial services) to be," he said. "It's close enough that they can go to New York to do deals but far enough away to have these humongous houses."